Again: The Theological Problem of Suffering

A good friend died. Multiple family members are unhappy with various pressures and bad luck. A colleague was just diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. I just found out that a former employee died two months ago at age 45. Professional frustrations weigh heavily. The state of the world, and of American politics, are both parlous. Somebody just killed five people in an unprovoked attack at the Fort Lauderdale airport.

Although I am right now reading C.S. Lewis’ famous tract on God’s relationship with human suffering, The Problem of Pain, I am not finding Lewis’ answers/analysis satisfactory. There still seems no good answer to why an all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God would allow so much suffering.

This, of course, is for many non-believers the single biggest stumbling block to faith: If God is good, and God is all-powerful, why are so many innocents in so much pain?

It does no good to note that no human is entirely innocent. That’s a load of, well, crud. The amount of suffering endured by many people vastly exceeds the relative level of guilt or “sin” attributable to those individuals’ thoughts or actions….

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse. Read more.